on Wednesday, 4 March 2026 at 11.00 pm by Peter Owen
categorised as Church of England, News
The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Dr David Walker, has announced that he will retire in the summer of 2027. He has been given a short extension in office beyond his 70th birthday, and the see will become vacant as from 31 July 2027.
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Simon W
20 days ago
There’s going to be an incredibly busy CNC in the coming couple of years. Could our moderators please re-post an updated version of your TA ‘vacant sees’ spreadsheet, showing where each diocese is ‘parked’ in the waiting line?
York and Lincoln can realistically be expected to join the list in the short or medium term, but after that (assuming no surprises), a period of relative stability for the HoB (assuming vacancies get filled smoothly)?
On reflection I was assuming that bishops would struggle on to their late 60s or 70 in my earlier reply. With the forthcoming uplift in clergy pensions it may be that a younger cadre find they decide they want to stop sooner?
I am not a Bishop, but am 72, and have no problem ‘struggling on’ in my profession. i am not uncommon.
Maybe because I don’t have any management responsibilities or need to travel or attend meetings very often.
Fr Dean
20 days ago
Sadly Guildford will also be joining the list too. Given that the CNC have been struggling to make appointments lately some of these interregna may drag on.
Stephen Griffiths
20 days ago
The rationale for an early announcement seems to be to allow the diocese a better chance of filling the vacancy promptly. Looking at the episcopal vacancy spreadsheet from Worcester to Oxford it seems to make little difference. The gap between vacancy announcement and the first CNC meeting is around 11 months whether the announcement of vacancy is made 8 months in advance (Bristol) or 5 months in advance (St Albans). Does the Manchester announcement really secure their place in the queue?
CnC reform has been discussed on here before.i think CNCs should start work from when the retirement date is announced.
That way a long interregnum can be avoided as the new bishop is known and there can be a handover
This happens in the Catholic Church and the Methodist Church. In The Methodist system the gap of about 6 weeks (old minister leaves in July, new one starts in September) is used to work on the manse
The process does start as soon as the vacancy is announced. First the diocesan vacancy-in-see committee has to meet, draw up a statement of needs, and select six of its number to sit on the CNC. The CNCs will be scheduled, generally given the next available slot at the point when the forthcoming vacancy is announced. But the CNC schedule is full and it can easily take a year for that slot to be reached. That is why David Walker announced his retirement over a year ahead, so that there is a reasonable chance of the actual vacancy between him… Read more »
Simon, can I add that here in Suffolk the recent episcopal vacancy was quite short as a result of Martin Seeley announcing in early 2024 that he would retire as Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich on 28 February 2025. The vacancy in see committee met over the summer of 2024, electing the six diocesan CNC members on 15 July and approving the final draft of the Statement of Needs at the end of August. The AAAV (Archbishops’ Advisers for Appointments and Vocations) Office was in contact with the CNC members during the autumn and the first meeting of the… Read more »
Though it should be said that Methodists send their presbyters, while other traditions call Ministers to pastorates, and the Crown Nomination Commission has both central and local representation, which no doubt makes the appointment of Bishops the most complex combination anyone could dream up.
At an intelligent guess I think if there are not enough Suffragan Bishops who are Diocesan Bishop material to translate to vacant Dioceses, or some of the existing Suffragan or Area Bishops are future Diocesan Bishops but being recently appointed need time to gain Episcopal experience and mature Episcopally, then Priests who are able and are Bishop Material may need to be consecrated directly into Diocesan roles, without going via Suffragan roles first, as is about to happen in Durham. Jonathan
Durham does have something of a track record over the last century of receiving and electing new bishops who have not been diocesans or suffragans elsewhere:
Simpson
Welby
Wright
Jenkins
Habgood
Ian Ramsey
Michael Ramsey
Alwyn Williams
So – Butler, Turnbull, Harland, and Henson have been the exceptions!
But it has no track record of appointing an internal archdeacon to the senior post. That is the signficant question I raise about this appointment. Too many senior staff appointed internally.
You’ve expressed concern about the internal appointments of Manchester Diocese. Might I suggest that, unless you have direct experience of the Durham senior team, you leave them out of it. And, turning to the appointment of Diocesan Bishops, perhaps it’s worth remembering that the majority of any CNC are outside the Diocese.
Many commentators here have only slight experience of some settings. I talk about principles. Of course we know about CNC membership balance but you forget about profiles and search documents which are created on the whole by the diocese.
17 months seems an extraordinarily and unnecessary period of notice. I think the Bishops need to have a sit down and chat amongst themselves about how useful anything more than four months notice really is. Unreasonably long notice periods elevate the role of diocesan bishop to indispensable; widen the gap between senior and parish appointment processes; create huge pressure on the CNC to get it right first time; underestimate the ability of the remaining senior diocesan leaders to lead the diocese. Strong candidates are out there, but the matchmaking process doesn’t work very well.
I don’t think the problem is the notice period. The problem is the bottleneck of the CNC, which meets once, or sometimes twice a month, say 16 times a year max. With two meetings required for each vacancy that means a max of say 8 vacancies can be considered in a year. And for the last few years that is indeed how many vacancies there have been each year, give or take. So the queue doesn’t get any shorter. And if a CNC fails to come up with a name, that dioceses goes to the back of the queue and… Read more »
Ratio of bishops to other clergy is going the same way as C Northcote Parkinson’s admirals ( the prescient … on current trends we will inevitably have more admirals than ships … ). The processes we have for making appointments currently hamper good order rather than serving it. We manage vacancies by default (in parishes as well as dioceses) rather than strategically. Also as parish posts become more demanding, a greater proportion of potential parish priests seek non-parish (or non-incumbent) roles. The incentives in the system are all wrong and create problems rather than being part of the solution. But… Read more »
I agree with much of what you say. A long time ago, when Justin Welby was newly in post as ABC, I did wonder if he was the man to address some of these structural issues. Hey, ho, life is full of disappointments.
I think that’s a different question. But also worthy of study. In other denominations, leaders in the equivalent position to bishops are finding that issues that used to be resolved more locally are now ending up on their desk, as lay structures have withered over time. It would not be unreasonable for the CofE to ask a. what do we expect a Diocesan bishop to do b. over how many churches/clergy/parishioners/square miles is it reasonable to conduct such a ministry and c. to what extent is our current diocesan structure consistent with that. But that doesn’t tell you whether the… Read more »
Dave
19 days ago
Personally I think bishops could usefully retire at 65 and not 70. I can’t see that Bishop Walker needs to stay on. Manchester diocese is by all accounts in a dreadful state and urgently needs new blood. All archdeacons, one of the suffragan bishops and the dean were ALL internal appointments and the consequent lack of breadth and vision shows. The other suffragan bishop from outside the diocese it should be said is doing a good job, and providing good leadership.Perhaps he could step up and two new suffragans be appointed from outside? A lot of change is needed if… Read more »
Sadly true. Having served in the Manchester Diocese in recent years as a curate, I opted to leave, in large part due to the insular, cliquish leadership and the obvious culture of ‘favourites’ and sidelining of those who weren’t prepared to be sycophants. Bishop David’s preference for making speeches in the House of Lords over attending to the needs of his diocese or the pastoral needs of his clergy was abundantly clear. Meanwhile, his weak character and leadership have contributed to the hollowing-out of the diocese at an even faster pace than the wider Church of England. The sadness in… Read more »
I hear very similar things, though what I’m told of the suffragans is a more balanced picture. The longer established of the two is spoken very highly of as a pastor by those I know up there, across the tradition spectrum, with the exception of some of a traditionalist Catholic bent who have an historic axe to grind about the Bishop’s change of heart over the ordination of women when he moved to Manchester from Wakefield in the dim and distant past. His newer colleague seems more popular with the evangelicals, particularly those with an interest in church planting. Beyond… Read more »
I’m pleased that this is what you hear too Realist. I did hesitate before speaking out. One issue I think is popular suffragans who play that card and stay for too long. They grow in ‘power’ because they simply know more and actually become rather tired. So as in this case they become a ‘showman’ with rather thin preaching / theology. There should be a time limit of say 8 years on how long they stay.
I have never met a showman bishop in the Diocese of Manchester, and I served there for seventeen years; both suffragans, Middleton and Bolton. are well-liked and effective. The limitations on ‘power’ seem to me to be more about the immense financial pressures and the management of declining resources. That is exhausting for everyone. The diocese gave up its third suffragan see some years ago, that of Hulme. It is noticeable as you say that all of the senior staff were appointed from within the diocese except +Bolton. Even Bishop David was a kind of internal appointment as he had… Read more »
Michael H
19 days ago
The suffragan bishop of Warwick (diocese of Coventry) retired nearly three years ago and hasn’t been replaced. No explanation in the diocese. Also the archdeacon of Coventry (known as archdeacon pastor) moved on three years ago. Still no permanent replacement. The archdeacon of Warwick (known as archdeacon missioner) is soon to become archdeacon of the Isle of Wight (a rare? sideways move). So after Easter, the diocese of Coventry will have only one bishop and no permanent archdeacons. Time to be subsumed back into Lichfield?
Historically, i.e. before 1837, the south-western portion of Warwickshire, called Felden, the Archdeaconry of Warwick, was in the diocese of Worcester, and the northern and eastern part, called Arden, the Archdeaconry of Coventry, was in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry. The 1837 reform united the whole of Warwickshire, placing it entirely in the diocese of Worcester. It was 70 or 80 years before first Birmingham (in 1905) and then the rest of Warwickshire (in 1918) were separated from Worcester. Almost the southernmost outpost of the old diocese of Coventry and Lichfield was the parish of St Chad’s, Bishops Tachbrook,… Read more »
Thank you for that. I knew that the Archdeaconry of Coventry had been transferred from Lichfield and Coventry, but wasn’t sure about the history of the Archdeaconry of Warwick.
Perhaps, without a song-and-dance being made about it, ‘the senior management’ is realising the opportunity to get the size of the management into better proportion with the numbers of clergy and ‘worshipping community’. Perhaps. Perhaps Coventry (and Lichfield?) could be a pioneer for a ‘simplification’?
Coventry. The reason +Warwick has not yet been replaced is because a month after he announced his retirement (May 23) the Diocesan also announced he was moving to a new job. He felt it should be the new diocesan who appointed the suffragan – and likewise appointing archdeacons. The new diocesan was announced in Nov 24 and did not start until summer 25. none of this has been ideal and we may wish otherwise but there are very practical reasons this is been such a protracted process. The appointing of a new suffragan and two archdeacons is underway. I cannot… Read more »
Richard Fisher
19 days ago
I think Bishop David has done a good job, don’t you. I wish him well.
That rather depends what you think is a ‘good’ job as a Bishop… the average attendance across the diocese has fallen from 31,400 when Bishop David took office, to 14,500 in 2024.
On what basis did you think this was a ‘good’ job?
Goodness me, that’s stark, when you see the figures expressed. As Bishop Walker is a mathematician and, I’m told by my friends up there, very keen on data driven approaches to whatever needs deciding, I’m a bit surprised that issue hasn’t been foregrounded in their strategy. From what I can see on the Diocesan website, and what my friends say about internal comms in the Diocese, there’s an awful lot of self congratulatory rhetoric going on about the success of the Diocesan vision (of which there seem to be several operating simultaneously from what limited sense I can make of… Read more »
Whatever the Bishop’s personal contribution to the life of the diocese, I think it is unlikely to be fair to attribute that to the Bishop alone. I bet contributors on here wouldn’t be crediting a Bishop if the trend in their diocese was the reverse! They’d be celebrating local churches and parish clergy, and potentially church planting outfits operating outside diocesan structures…
Morale in Manchester diocese is very low. Centralisation has gone apace, very unpopular full time area deans appointed have depleted parish coal face ministry. Parish clergy numbers are severely depleted with appointments taking years to be made. Senior clergy are detached from those in their care, bishops do not visit clergy pastorally. It is said the House of Lords is the priority of the diocesan not struggling clergy. Every few years a new grand plan is announced then it fizzles out. Thousands and thousands of Church Commissioners money has been poured into schemes and resource churches in this diocese but… Read more »
Interesting to compare some of the comments on the episcopate of Bishop Walker with the picture given of the episcopate of the first bishop of Manchester, James Prince Lee, in that fascinating book ”Godliness and Good Learning” by David Newsome. He portrays Prince Lee as being a brilliant classical headmaster who became a decidedly unsympathetic bishop. It seems that Manchester needs another Bishop Fraser – Prince Lee’s much more popular successor.
There’s going to be an incredibly busy CNC in the coming couple of years. Could our moderators please re-post an updated version of your TA ‘vacant sees’ spreadsheet, showing where each diocese is ‘parked’ in the waiting line?
Peter maintains this at http://peterowen.org.uk/articles/vacantsees.html
York and Lincoln can realistically be expected to join the list in the short or medium term, but after that (assuming no surprises), a period of relative stability for the HoB (assuming vacancies get filled smoothly)?
On reflection I was assuming that bishops would struggle on to their late 60s or 70 in my earlier reply. With the forthcoming uplift in clergy pensions it may be that a younger cadre find they decide they want to stop sooner?
I am not a Bishop, but am 72, and have no problem ‘struggling on’ in my profession. i am not uncommon.
Maybe because I don’t have any management responsibilities or need to travel or attend meetings very often.
Sadly Guildford will also be joining the list too. Given that the CNC have been struggling to make appointments lately some of these interregna may drag on.
The rationale for an early announcement seems to be to allow the diocese a better chance of filling the vacancy promptly. Looking at the episcopal vacancy spreadsheet from Worcester to Oxford it seems to make little difference. The gap between vacancy announcement and the first CNC meeting is around 11 months whether the announcement of vacancy is made 8 months in advance (Bristol) or 5 months in advance (St Albans). Does the Manchester announcement really secure their place in the queue?
CnC reform has been discussed on here before.i think CNCs should start work from when the retirement date is announced.
That way a long interregnum can be avoided as the new bishop is known and there can be a handover
This happens in the Catholic Church and the Methodist Church. In The Methodist system the gap of about 6 weeks (old minister leaves in July, new one starts in September) is used to work on the manse
The process does start as soon as the vacancy is announced. First the diocesan vacancy-in-see committee has to meet, draw up a statement of needs, and select six of its number to sit on the CNC. The CNCs will be scheduled, generally given the next available slot at the point when the forthcoming vacancy is announced. But the CNC schedule is full and it can easily take a year for that slot to be reached. That is why David Walker announced his retirement over a year ahead, so that there is a reasonable chance of the actual vacancy between him… Read more »
Simon, can I add that here in Suffolk the recent episcopal vacancy was quite short as a result of Martin Seeley announcing in early 2024 that he would retire as Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich on 28 February 2025. The vacancy in see committee met over the summer of 2024, electing the six diocesan CNC members on 15 July and approving the final draft of the Statement of Needs at the end of August. The AAAV (Archbishops’ Advisers for Appointments and Vocations) Office was in contact with the CNC members during the autumn and the first meeting of the… Read more »
Though it should be said that Methodists send their presbyters, while other traditions call Ministers to pastorates, and the Crown Nomination Commission has both central and local representation, which no doubt makes the appointment of Bishops the most complex combination anyone could dream up.
Isn’t a more pressing problem the dearth of strong candidates?
At an intelligent guess I think if there are not enough Suffragan Bishops who are Diocesan Bishop material to translate to vacant Dioceses, or some of the existing Suffragan or Area Bishops are future Diocesan Bishops but being recently appointed need time to gain Episcopal experience and mature Episcopally, then Priests who are able and are Bishop Material may need to be consecrated directly into Diocesan roles, without going via Suffragan roles first, as is about to happen in Durham. Jonathan
Durham does have something of a track record over the last century of receiving and electing new bishops who have not been diocesans or suffragans elsewhere:
Simpson
Welby
Wright
Jenkins
Habgood
Ian Ramsey
Michael Ramsey
Alwyn Williams
So – Butler, Turnbull, Harland, and Henson have been the exceptions!
But it has no track record of appointing an internal archdeacon to the senior post. That is the signficant question I raise about this appointment. Too many senior staff appointed internally.
You’ve expressed concern about the internal appointments of Manchester Diocese. Might I suggest that, unless you have direct experience of the Durham senior team, you leave them out of it. And, turning to the appointment of Diocesan Bishops, perhaps it’s worth remembering that the majority of any CNC are outside the Diocese.
Many commentators here have only slight experience of some settings. I talk about principles. Of course we know about CNC membership balance but you forget about profiles and search documents which are created on the whole by the diocese.
Good point. How can I apply? Fully trained….perhaps too old,
17 months seems an extraordinarily and unnecessary period of notice. I think the Bishops need to have a sit down and chat amongst themselves about how useful anything more than four months notice really is. Unreasonably long notice periods elevate the role of diocesan bishop to indispensable; widen the gap between senior and parish appointment processes; create huge pressure on the CNC to get it right first time; underestimate the ability of the remaining senior diocesan leaders to lead the diocese. Strong candidates are out there, but the matchmaking process doesn’t work very well.
I don’t think the problem is the notice period. The problem is the bottleneck of the CNC, which meets once, or sometimes twice a month, say 16 times a year max. With two meetings required for each vacancy that means a max of say 8 vacancies can be considered in a year. And for the last few years that is indeed how many vacancies there have been each year, give or take. So the queue doesn’t get any shorter. And if a CNC fails to come up with a name, that dioceses goes to the back of the queue and… Read more »
Perhaps the “problem” is too many dioceses? If there were only 20 or so, then replacing a maximum of 8 diocesans a year would be ample capacity.
Ratio of bishops to other clergy is going the same way as C Northcote Parkinson’s admirals ( the prescient … on current trends we will inevitably have more admirals than ships … ). The processes we have for making appointments currently hamper good order rather than serving it. We manage vacancies by default (in parishes as well as dioceses) rather than strategically. Also as parish posts become more demanding, a greater proportion of potential parish priests seek non-parish (or non-incumbent) roles. The incentives in the system are all wrong and create problems rather than being part of the solution. But… Read more »
I agree with much of what you say. A long time ago, when Justin Welby was newly in post as ABC, I did wonder if he was the man to address some of these structural issues. Hey, ho, life is full of disappointments.
I think that’s a different question. But also worthy of study. In other denominations, leaders in the equivalent position to bishops are finding that issues that used to be resolved more locally are now ending up on their desk, as lay structures have withered over time. It would not be unreasonable for the CofE to ask a. what do we expect a Diocesan bishop to do b. over how many churches/clergy/parishioners/square miles is it reasonable to conduct such a ministry and c. to what extent is our current diocesan structure consistent with that. But that doesn’t tell you whether the… Read more »
Personally I think bishops could usefully retire at 65 and not 70. I can’t see that Bishop Walker needs to stay on. Manchester diocese is by all accounts in a dreadful state and urgently needs new blood. All archdeacons, one of the suffragan bishops and the dean were ALL internal appointments and the consequent lack of breadth and vision shows. The other suffragan bishop from outside the diocese it should be said is doing a good job, and providing good leadership.Perhaps he could step up and two new suffragans be appointed from outside? A lot of change is needed if… Read more »
Sadly true. Having served in the Manchester Diocese in recent years as a curate, I opted to leave, in large part due to the insular, cliquish leadership and the obvious culture of ‘favourites’ and sidelining of those who weren’t prepared to be sycophants. Bishop David’s preference for making speeches in the House of Lords over attending to the needs of his diocese or the pastoral needs of his clergy was abundantly clear. Meanwhile, his weak character and leadership have contributed to the hollowing-out of the diocese at an even faster pace than the wider Church of England. The sadness in… Read more »
I hear very similar things, though what I’m told of the suffragans is a more balanced picture. The longer established of the two is spoken very highly of as a pastor by those I know up there, across the tradition spectrum, with the exception of some of a traditionalist Catholic bent who have an historic axe to grind about the Bishop’s change of heart over the ordination of women when he moved to Manchester from Wakefield in the dim and distant past. His newer colleague seems more popular with the evangelicals, particularly those with an interest in church planting. Beyond… Read more »
I’m pleased that this is what you hear too Realist. I did hesitate before speaking out. One issue I think is popular suffragans who play that card and stay for too long. They grow in ‘power’ because they simply know more and actually become rather tired. So as in this case they become a ‘showman’ with rather thin preaching / theology. There should be a time limit of say 8 years on how long they stay.
I have never met a showman bishop in the Diocese of Manchester, and I served there for seventeen years; both suffragans, Middleton and Bolton. are well-liked and effective. The limitations on ‘power’ seem to me to be more about the immense financial pressures and the management of declining resources. That is exhausting for everyone. The diocese gave up its third suffragan see some years ago, that of Hulme. It is noticeable as you say that all of the senior staff were appointed from within the diocese except +Bolton. Even Bishop David was a kind of internal appointment as he had… Read more »
The suffragan bishop of Warwick (diocese of Coventry) retired nearly three years ago and hasn’t been replaced. No explanation in the diocese. Also the archdeacon of Coventry (known as archdeacon pastor) moved on three years ago. Still no permanent replacement. The archdeacon of Warwick (known as archdeacon missioner) is soon to become archdeacon of the Isle of Wight (a rare? sideways move). So after Easter, the diocese of Coventry will have only one bishop and no permanent archdeacons. Time to be subsumed back into Lichfield?
The current Diocese of Coventry was carved out of the Diocese of Worcester, having been transferred from Lichfield to Worcester in 1836.
Historically, i.e. before 1837, the south-western portion of Warwickshire, called Felden, the Archdeaconry of Warwick, was in the diocese of Worcester, and the northern and eastern part, called Arden, the Archdeaconry of Coventry, was in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry. The 1837 reform united the whole of Warwickshire, placing it entirely in the diocese of Worcester. It was 70 or 80 years before first Birmingham (in 1905) and then the rest of Warwickshire (in 1918) were separated from Worcester. Almost the southernmost outpost of the old diocese of Coventry and Lichfield was the parish of St Chad’s, Bishops Tachbrook,… Read more »
Thank you for that. I knew that the Archdeaconry of Coventry had been transferred from Lichfield and Coventry, but wasn’t sure about the history of the Archdeaconry of Warwick.
Perhaps, without a song-and-dance being made about it, ‘the senior management’ is realising the opportunity to get the size of the management into better proportion with the numbers of clergy and ‘worshipping community’. Perhaps. Perhaps Coventry (and Lichfield?) could be a pioneer for a ‘simplification’?
Coventry. The reason +Warwick has not yet been replaced is because a month after he announced his retirement (May 23) the Diocesan also announced he was moving to a new job. He felt it should be the new diocesan who appointed the suffragan – and likewise appointing archdeacons. The new diocesan was announced in Nov 24 and did not start until summer 25. none of this has been ideal and we may wish otherwise but there are very practical reasons this is been such a protracted process. The appointing of a new suffragan and two archdeacons is underway. I cannot… Read more »
I think Bishop David has done a good job, don’t you. I wish him well.
That rather depends what you think is a ‘good’ job as a Bishop… the average attendance across the diocese has fallen from 31,400 when Bishop David took office, to 14,500 in 2024.
On what basis did you think this was a ‘good’ job?
Goodness me, that’s stark, when you see the figures expressed. As Bishop Walker is a mathematician and, I’m told by my friends up there, very keen on data driven approaches to whatever needs deciding, I’m a bit surprised that issue hasn’t been foregrounded in their strategy. From what I can see on the Diocesan website, and what my friends say about internal comms in the Diocese, there’s an awful lot of self congratulatory rhetoric going on about the success of the Diocesan vision (of which there seem to be several operating simultaneously from what limited sense I can make of… Read more »
Whatever the Bishop’s personal contribution to the life of the diocese, I think it is unlikely to be fair to attribute that to the Bishop alone. I bet contributors on here wouldn’t be crediting a Bishop if the trend in their diocese was the reverse! They’d be celebrating local churches and parish clergy, and potentially church planting outfits operating outside diocesan structures…
Morale in Manchester diocese is very low. Centralisation has gone apace, very unpopular full time area deans appointed have depleted parish coal face ministry. Parish clergy numbers are severely depleted with appointments taking years to be made. Senior clergy are detached from those in their care, bishops do not visit clergy pastorally. It is said the House of Lords is the priority of the diocesan not struggling clergy. Every few years a new grand plan is announced then it fizzles out. Thousands and thousands of Church Commissioners money has been poured into schemes and resource churches in this diocese but… Read more »
Interesting to compare some of the comments on the episcopate of Bishop Walker with the picture given of the episcopate of the first bishop of Manchester, James Prince Lee, in that fascinating book ”Godliness and Good Learning” by David Newsome. He portrays Prince Lee as being a brilliant classical headmaster who became a decidedly unsympathetic bishop. It seems that Manchester needs another Bishop Fraser – Prince Lee’s much more popular successor.